Middle/high school after Montessori Elementary

[Anonymous]

I’m wondering what Montessori families are choosing to do these days for middle/high school? I know Truth exists, but I’ve been hearing some staffing horror stories and would not feel comfortable sending my kid there with how things are right now.

[Anonymous]

Staffing horrors sounds dramatic. My kid is at Truth for her second year and loves it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Staffing horrors sounds dramatic. My kid is at Truth for her second year and loves it.

Glad she loves it and is one of the lucky ones who has had consistent teachers.

[Anonymous]

It really depends on how committed you are to staying with the Montessori model, which as you know is vastly different from all other choices out there (public and private). There are certainly private Montessori middle and HS in the DMV. Our situation was we ended up sending our kids to Montessori through 1st grade then made the shift to our neighborhood public school. It was a huge change: strong focus on testing, no more self directed learning, no exploring topics because they interested you, very little group work, teacher decides everything, and worst of all lots of time spent on preparing kids for state testing. If I could have done it all over again, I might have pushed harder to keep them in that environment a little longer.

[Anonymous]

My kids are at Truth and are doing well after attending montessori elementary school.

Last year, one of my children was in the group where they replaced one set of teachers mid year, then another set in the Spring. While that's far from ideal, I think its overstating things to characterize it as a "horror story."

I heard similar stories from parents at other schools over the past year or so, in the pandemic and post-pandemic era, so I'm willing to live with it.

I only know some of the background to the decisions to replace the teachers, but it's enough to satisfy me that it was the correct decision, or at least give the admin the benefit of doubt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are at Truth and are doing well after attending montessori elementary school.

Last year, one of my children was in the group where they replaced one set of teachers mid year, then another set in the Spring. While that's far from ideal, I think its overstating things to characterize it as a "horror story."

I heard similar stories from parents at other schools over the past year or so, in the pandemic and post-pandemic era, so I'm willing to live with it.

I only know some of the background to the decisions to replace the teachers, but it's enough to satisfy me that it was the correct decision, or at least give the admin the benefit of doubt.

+1. My kid was in another middle school (not Truth) that also had to replace teachers mid-year. It's happening more and more since the pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are at Truth and are doing well after attending montessori elementary school.

Last year, one of my children was in the group where they replaced one set of teachers mid year, then another set in the Spring. While that's far from ideal, I think its overstating things to characterize it as a "horror story."

I heard similar stories from parents at other schools over the past year or so, in the pandemic and post-pandemic era, so I'm willing to live with it.

I only know some of the background to the decisions to replace the teachers, but it's enough to satisfy me that it was the correct decision, or at least give the admin the benefit of doubt.

+1. My kid was in another middle school (not Truth) that also had to replace teachers mid-year. It's happening more and more since the pandemic.

+2 This is every middle school.

[Anonymous]

+3. One of my kids classes NEVER got a teacher. I'd rather any school can or move on bad fits in the middle of the year than waste the whole year with a mediocre teacher.

[Anonymous]

Who would have thought a pedagogy designed for ECE that was stretched (poorly) to upper ES and wouldn't work in MS or HS. Seriously, this is a SHOCKING development.

Do to an ES open house and ask this. The [insert dumb name of tour guide here] will try and shame you and subtly suggest that if you have to ask you shouldn't attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who would have thought a pedagogy designed for ECE that was stretched (poorly) to upper ES and wouldn't work in MS or HS. Seriously, this is a SHOCKING development.

Do to an ES open house and ask this. The [insert dumb name of tour guide here] will try and shame you and subtly suggest that if you have to ask you shouldn't attend.

Exactly correct. Montessori is great until maybe 2nd grade.

[Anonymous]

A September 2017 study published in Economics of Education Review found that a Montessori education didn't make a difference for teenagers. It tracked hundreds of students, some of whom had won a lottery to attend a Montessori high school in the Netherlands, others of whom had lost the lottery and attended a traditional secondary school. In the Netherlands, Montessori high school students did no better or worse than traditional students. They finished their secondary degrees at the same rates with similar grades and final exam results. The author, Nienke Rujis, also found no differences on soft skills. Montessori students showed similar levels of motivation, and scored no better on measures of independence, "even though these are the main characteristics that a Montessori education claims to foster," Rujis wrote.

Read the study here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272775717305356?_docanchor=&_fmt=high&_origin=gateway&_rdoc=1&dgcid=raven_sd_via_email&md5=b8429449ccfc9c30159a5f9aeaa92ffb

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who would have thought a pedagogy designed for ECE that was stretched (poorly) to upper ES and wouldn't work in MS or HS. Seriously, this is a SHOCKING development.

Do to an ES open house and ask this. The [insert dumb name of tour guide here] will try and shame you and subtly suggest that if you have to ask you shouldn't attend.

Exactly correct. Montessori is great until maybe 2nd grade.

+1. It’s terrible for upper elementary and disaster for middle and high. It’s rare the 100% internally driven child. Kids need structure, direction, equal time in all subjects, no matter strengths or weaknesses but especially the weakness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A September 2017 study published in Economics of Education Review found that a Montessori education didn't make a difference for teenagers. It tracked hundreds of students, some of whom had won a lottery to attend a Montessori high school in the Netherlands, others of whom had lost the lottery and attended a traditional secondary school. In the Netherlands, Montessori high school students did no better or worse than traditional students. They finished their secondary degrees at the same rates with similar grades and final exam results. The author, Nienke Rujis, also found no differences on soft skills. Montessori students showed similar levels of motivation, and scored no better on measures of independence, "even though these are the main characteristics that a Montessori education claims to foster," Rujis wrote.

Read the study here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272775717305356?_docanchor=&_fmt=high&_origin=gateway&_rdoc=1&dgcid=raven_sd_via_email&md5=b8429449ccfc9c30159a5f9aeaa92ffb

So they do no better, but also no worse? So a kid can spend their time time in school choosing what to do, and creating their own structure, etc, and end up the same as a kid who was forced into a certain structure and lacked the freedom of choice a Montessori kid gets? I’d put my kid in Montessori if this is the case.

[Anonymous]

https://www.empowerk12.org/data-dashboard-source/dc-parcc-dash

When you look at the PARCC scores for all students, Sojourner Truth does pretty well for itself comparatively.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who would have thought a pedagogy designed for ECE that was stretched (poorly) to upper ES and wouldn't work in MS or HS. Seriously, this is a SHOCKING development.

Do to an ES open house and ask this. The [insert dumb name of tour guide here] will try and shame you and subtly suggest that if you have to ask you shouldn't attend.

Exactly correct. Montessori is great until maybe 2nd grade.

+1. It’s terrible for upper elementary and disaster for middle and high. It’s rare the 100% internally driven child. Kids need structure, direction, equal time in all subjects, no matter strengths or weaknesses but especially the weakness.

Especially the bolded. If you think even a kid who is "100% internally driven" (whatever the hell that means) can or should be deciding what they want to do and study and how then you are a bad parent.